Cabinet gives green signal to DTH

The long-awaited direct-to-home (DTH) television service was cleared by the Union Cabinet with a 49 per cent cap on foreign equity and "suitable safeguards" to take care of concerns relating to national security, morality and monopoly in distribution and broadcasting of TV services. DTH service would become a reality within a year as the government had asked all licencees to set up uplink earth stations in the country within 12 months from the date of issue of license. It would be mandatory for all licencees to uplink from Indian soil to ensure content regulation through monitoring. All licencees would be required to adhere to programme and advertisement codes laid down by I&B ministry.
The applicant is required to pay an entry fee of Rs 10 crore in the beginning in addition to which 10 per cent per year of the revenue collected by the platform owner shall be payable to the government as annual fee. Under the guidelines and terms and conditions for establishment, maintenance and operation of the service, all applicants should be registered under the Indian Companies Act and the total foreign investment including FDI/NRI/FII in the sector should not be more than 49 per cent in which there is a cap of 20 per cent on FDI.